Eating for endurance means choosing whole foods that will give you sustained energy without making you feel weighed down, fatigued, or bloated. Here are some tips for fueling your body for a successful event:.

Choose whole-grain bread, pasta, fruits, and vegetables over refined or processed foods. Dehydration is one of the ultimate enemies for athletes. For successful endurance training and overall health and wellness, it's essential to understand your metabolic needs. And this includes finding the foods that suit your body best.

Everyone's metabolism is different, so you need to know what works best for you. Metabolism is the process that our bodies use to create energy, and many things can affect it. By understanding how it works, you can make better choices about your diet and lifestyle that will help you reach your goals.

It includes observing your energy levels, hunger pangs, and blood glucose reactions to foods and exercise. Many athletes work with professional dietitians and doctors or utilize technology to learn about their metabolic needs. You may even consider using a CGM for running or other types of exercise to learn more about your nutrition.

Smartwatches, continuous glucose monitors, hydration trackers, and performance analytics can be a game-changer while your body is getting used to your training routine. Your blood sugar levels can significantly impact how your body feels and functions.

When you join the Nutrisense CGM program , our team of credentialed dietitians and nutritionists are available for additional support and guidance to help you reach your goals. Ready to take the first step? Start with our quiz to see how Nutrisense can support your health. Amanda is a Nutrition Manager and Registered Dietitian at Nutrisense, with a Masters in Dietetics from Stephen F.

Austin State University. Originally from south GA, she got her undergrad degree from Texas Tech University. Before joining Nutrisense, she worked at a hospital in Fort Worth, TX, for 4 years as a dietitian, counseling those living with HIV.

How It Works Nutritionists Journal. What Is A CGM? Get Started. Promo code SPRING will be automatically applied at checkout! Eating for Endurance: A Complete Guide for Athletes.

Team Nutrisense. Share on Twitter. Share on Facebook. Share via Email. Reviewed by. Amanda Donahue, MS, RD, CD. Essential Foods for Endurance Athletes.

Related Article. Read More. Engage with Your Blood Glucose Levels with Nutrisense Your blood sugar levels can significantly impact how your body feels and functions.

Take Our Quiz. Individualised testing is necessary to assess iron status and determine the need for supplementation. A well-balanced diet with iron-rich foods is generally recommended. Before taking any iron supplements, it is recommended to consult with your doctor.

This vitamin boosts the immune system, protects against infections, and enhances iron absorption. However, excessive intake through supplementation can have limited benefits and potential risks. It is generally recommended for athletes to meet their vitamin C needs through a well-balanced diet that includes fruits and vegetables.

Whole foods provide a wide array of beneficial compounds that work synergistically, whereas isolated vitamin C supplements may not offer the same advantages. The benefits and necessity of multivitamins for endurance athletes are subject to scrutiny.

While multivitamins can provide essential nutrients, their impact on performance is not well-established. Athletes who maintain a balanced diet can usually meet their nutrient needs without supplementation.

Excessive intake of certain vitamins or minerals through multivitamins can lead to imbalances or toxicity. It is recommended to prioritise a varied diet of whole foods and undergo individualized nutritional assessments to identify specific deficiencies.

However, where there are known nutrient deficiencies, taking a multi-vitamin can be valuable. The inclusion of beetroot shots in your nutrition regimen may be an efficient way to incorporate beetroot into your diet for endurance athletes, although this is up for debate.

While beetroot juice is known to contain nitrates that have the potential to enhance exercise performance, the necessity of regularly consuming beetroot shots remains a matter of debate.

The impact of beetroot shots on endurance athletes is greatly individualised, with some individuals experiencing limited or no noticeable benefits. Furthermore, alternative dietary approaches, such as maintaining a well-rounded diet consisting of whole grains, lean proteins, and a variety of fruits and vegetables, can provide comparable advantages in terms of recovery.

It is also important to consider individual preferences, taste, and the potential for gastrointestinal discomfort when consuming beetroot shots. Adequate protein intake is crucial for growth, development, and repair of muscles and other tissues in the body, including bones and tendons.

Protein-rich foods like meat, fish, eggs, dairy, tofu, and beans should be regularly consumed. What about protein shakes? Protein shakes can be a convenient option to meet protein requirements. Carbohydrates hold significant importance for endurance athletes, serving as a cornerstone of their nutrition.

Carbohydrates offer several benefits. Firstly, carbohydrates serve as the primary source of energy, fuelling athletic performance and aiding in the delay of fatigue, thereby enhancing endurance capacity.

Additionally, they play a pivotal role in supporting immune function, which can be temporarily compromised by intense training. By ensuring an adequate carbohydrate intake, athletes can bolster their immune system, reducing the susceptibility to illnesses. Furthermore, carbohydrates contribute to the maintenance of bone health by facilitating the production of insulin-like growth factor and aiding in calcium absorption.

It is crucial for endurance athletes to prioritise a well-balanced diet, ensuring an appropriate carbohydrate intake to support their energy needs, immune system, and bone health. You can see the three plates here. On the easy training plate, vegetables and fruits take up half the plate.

Grains and fats are good options, along with subtler tweaks. For example, the easy training plate includes only fresh fruit; the moderate and hard plates add stewed and dried fruits. In practice, that means cutting way back on fiber for a few days. Researchers at Liverpool John Moores University in Britain tested this approach in a study published earlier this year.

They had 19 volunteers cut back from their typical 30 grams of daily fiber to less than 10 for four straight days, while maintaining the same overall calorie content and macronutrient distribution in each meal.

The result: average weight loss of 1. There are other reasons you might be interested in a pre-race low-residue diet. She noted four relevant and evidence-backed ergogenic aids for track athletes: beta-alanine, sodium bicarbonate, creatine, and caffeine.

Only the last one has been shown to reliably work for long-distance events. She also noted some key parameters to monitor on an ongoing basis: vitamin D, vitamin B12—and iron.

They are revered and utilized by leading brands and programs around the world and have launched thousands of successful careers.

org Fitness CPT Nutrition CES Sports Performance Workout Plans Wellness. Fitness Sports Performance Nutrition Nutrition and the Endurance Athlete - Eating for Peak Performance.

By Dominique Adair, MS, RD Nutritional needs of the endurance athlete are aggressively studied and the days of the pre-marathon pasta dinner have been enhanced by a sophisticated understanding of how nutrients can improve long-duration performance.

The following all influence which fuel is predominant during activity: intensity anaerobic or aerobic of activity duration of activity conditioning of the athlete recovery time diet composition Muscles always use a mixture of fuels, never just one.

Carbohydrates For Endurance Athletes Glucose, stored in the liver and muscles as glycogen, is vital to physical activity. FatS for Endurance In contrast to dietary fat, body fat stores are of tremendous importance during physical activity, as long as the intensity is not too high and there is adequate O2 delivery to use fat as a fuel source.

Protein And Endurance Training While fat and carbohydrate represent the largest contribution of energy expenditure during exercise, the utilization of protein can also be significant.

Not just a sum of the parts Regardless of how athletes divide up their macronutrients, if total energy intake is not adequate, performance will suffer 7. Fluid Needs If organized in priority order, fluid would sit at the top of the list. To Sum it All Up In addition to securing the right macronutrient distribution, athletes should be encouraged to make the most nutrient dense choices possible.

Key Points Training can use up as much as 40 percent of an athlete's total daily energy expenditure and energy demands in competition can also be very high In addition to securing the right macronutrient distribution, athletes should be encouraged to make the most nutrient dense choices possible.

References The History of Gatorade, www. Retrieved on May 11, Lambert EV, Goedecke JH. The role of dietary macronutrients in optimizing endurance performance.

Curr Sports Med Rep Aug ;2 4 Wilmore, JH, Costill, DL. Physical Energy: Fuel Metabolism, Nutrition Reviews ;SS Paul GL. Dietary protein requirements of physically active individuals. Sports Med Sep;8 3 Tarnapolsky M.

Protein requirements for endurance athletes. Nutrition ; Gaine PC, Pikosky MA, Martin WF, et al. Level of dietary protein impacts whole body protein turnover in trained males at rest. M etabolism ; Hoffman CJ, Coleman E. An eating plan and update on recommended dietary practices for the endurance athlete.

J Am Diet Assoc ; Nogueira JA, Da Costa, TH. Nutritional status of endurance athletes: what is the available information? Arch Latinoam Nutr Mar ;55 1 Knechtle, B et al. Energy metabolism in long-term endurance sports: a case study. Schweiz Rundsch Med Prax Apr ;92 18 Murray R.

Rehydration strategies--balancing substrate, fluid, and electrolyte provision. I nt J Sports Med Jun ;19 Suppl 2:S Sawka NM, Montain SJ.

Fluid and electrolyte supplementation for exercise heat stress, Amer J Clin Nutr ;SS. Murry R. Fluid and electrolytes in sports nutrition: A guide for the professional working with active people, 3 rd ed.

Chicago: ADA; p 95 - Noakes T. Fluid replacement during marathon running. Clin J Sport Med Sep ;13 5 Tipton, KD, et al. Timing of amino acid-carbohydrate ingestion alters anabolic response of muscle to resistance exercise.

Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab ;EE The Author. National Academy of Sports Medicine Since the National Academy of Sports Medicine NASM has been the global leader in delivering evidence-based certifications and advanced specializations to health and fitness professionals.

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The Blue Zone Diet: What to Eat to Live Longer By Nicole Golden. Get NASM Edge App! But when it comes to endurance exercise, nutrition is about so much more than just those two things. In fact, what you eat can have a big impact on your energy levels, recovery time, and overall training efficiency.

This is where using a CGM for fitness and training can come in handy, as you can gain insight into how well you are fueling your body. Speak with a trainer or registered dietitian to see what foods and dietary tweaks suit your body.

Carbohydrates and protein often take center stage in conversations about eating for endurance athletes, but what about fat?

This essential macronutrient is often overlooked, but it's just as important as carbs and protein. There are three types of fats : saturated, unsaturated, and trans fats. Why is a good amount of fat intake so essential for athletes? It helps with energy and muscle function and is burned as metabolic fuel for your muscles during endurance exercises or training sessions.

Not getting enough fat can cause problems like fatigue and poor performance. So if you're an athlete currently training for your next event, make sure to include some healthy fats in your diet! Carbohydrates are macronutrients that your body uses for energy.

They come from a wide variety of foods, including fruits, vegetables, grains, pasta, bread, and dairy products. Carbohydrates are an essential part of a healthy diet, providing fiber and essential nutrients. There are two main types — complex and simple carbohydrates.

Complex carbs take longer to digest and provide sustained energy, while simple carbs provide quick energy but can also cause blood sugar spikes. To get the most benefit, you should aim to include both complex and simple carbs in your diet. Why is it so important for endurance athletes? They need carbohydrates to fuel their bodies for competition.

While some may try to cut carbs out of their diet to lose weight, this can be detrimental to their performance. Carbohydrates are essential for providing the body with energy.

Carb loading is an integral part of preparing for endurance events and training. But, you have to consider the amount of carb loading you are doing, the amount of exercise you are doing each day, or the duration and intensity of your race or event.

You should also consider adjusting your fat intake so as not to exceed caloric intake. As your time training or competing increases, so should your carb load. The Mayo Clinic suggests averaging five to 12 grams of carbohydrates per kilogram of body weight daily while training and competing in endurance sports.

Protein is an essential macronutrient that plays a significant role in optimizing health and fitness. Athletes need protein for a variety of reasons. For one, they may engage in more resistance training and utilize more muscle than sedentary people, and so, may need more protein.

Protein helps repair and build muscle tissue , reduces muscle breakdown during extended training sessions, and aids in muscle recovery after strenuous exercise.

Without enough protein, athletes can experience fatigue, joint pain, loss of lean body mass, and an increased risk of injury.

But how much protein do endurance athletes need? It depends on several factors, including age, weight, activity level, and training goals. But most experts agree that active people generally require more protein than sedentary folks—somewhere in the range of 1.

That means a pound person would need approximately 80 to 95, and up to grams of protein daily. Eating enough protein can help athletes recover from grueling workouts, prevent injuries, and improve overall performance. As a quick reminder, think of these suggestions as a good starting point.

It really depends on your individual responses to foods and meal timing. So, is there a specific time when athletes should eat? Like most people, you probably think that the best time to eat while endurance training is immediately before or during your event.

However, this isn't necessarily the case. Depending on the length and intensity of your endurance training, you may need to eat differently to fuel your body correctly. Eating before or after a workout can make a big difference in your performance, so knowing which option is best for you is essential.

Like with what foods you add to your diet, is no one-diet-fits-all solution to meal frequency and timing. Each sport, activity, and person will need to work with their coaches and medical professionals to determine the best time to eat.

Timing your nutrient uptake will require methodical planning and patience while you experience trial and error. What you eat before and during an endurance event is just as important as your training. Eating for endurance means choosing whole foods that will give you sustained energy without making you feel weighed down, fatigued, or bloated.

Here are some tips for fueling your body for a successful event:. Choose whole-grain bread, pasta, fruits, and vegetables over refined or processed foods. Dehydration is one of the ultimate enemies for athletes. For successful endurance training and overall health and wellness, it's essential to understand your metabolic needs.

And this includes finding the foods that suit your body best. Everyone's metabolism is different, so you need to know what works best for you. Metabolism is the process that our bodies use to create energy, and many things can affect it. By understanding how it works, you can make better choices about your diet and lifestyle that will help you reach your goals.